A leak of the key chapter from the controversial book If I Did It — OJ Simpson’s ”hypothetical” account of the 1994 murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman — has fuelled speculation that the transcript amounts to a confession.
In the chapter Simpson describes in detail the events immediately before and after the murders on the night of June 12 1994. According to an account in Newsweek magazine, Simpson describes how he was infuriated by his ex-wife’s behaviour and decided to visit her. He parked in an alleyway behind her apartment and, to scare her, put on the gloves and woollen hat he kept in his car. But as he entered through the back gate, he met Goldman, a waiter who was returning a pair of glasses left at a restaurant.
Simpson, in his account, accused Goldman of having an affair with his ex-wife.
Goldman denied the accusation, and Brown Simpson told the former United States football star and film actor to leave her alone. But at that point, according to Simpson’s account in the ghost-written book, his ex-wife’s dog, Kato, came out and gave Goldman a friendly greeting. ”You’ve been here before,” Simpson screamed at Goldman.
Simpson continues that his ex-wife came at him like a ”banshee”, but lost her balance and fell, cracking her head. Goldman then assumed a karate position, angering Simpson, who dared him to fight. At that point the narrative pauses, and Simpson writes: ”Then something went horribly wrong. I know what happened, but I can’t tell you exactly how.”
When he got control of himself, he writes, he realised he was drenched in blood and holding a bloody knife. He describes stripping to his socks and rolling his bloody clothes around the knife. The police never found his clothes or the weapon, but they did find Simpson’s bloody socks.
Simpson’s attorney, Yale Galanter, told Newsweek that the manuscript did not amount to an admission and was not ”fact or close to fact”. Simpson concluded the chapter by repeating that he was ”absolutely 100% not guilty”. – Guardian Unlimited Â